Educators nave long recognized that creative imagination by children during play is beneficial to the mental development of children. A variety of toys have been proposed in the art for allowing such creative imagination, and a number such toys have been in use for long periods of time. However, such conventional toys are generally constructed such that they are primarily intended for either design (novel, usually planar, arrangements) or construction (novel, usually three dimensioned, structures) by the playing child, and have limited utility in both design and construction. For example well known TINKER TOYS well configured for children, but those toys have little utility in creating new designs, e.g. arrangements of shapes and colors, by a playing child.
Another disadvantage of conventional toys is that in order to supply the child with a sufficient number of the individual elements making the toy to span the ability for design and construction of a wide range of ages of children, the cost of such a large number of such elements is quite high. Again, for example, a small number of TINKER TOYS elements is acceptable for very young children, e.g. to build small non-complicated structures, and the cost of that small number is reasonable. However, with older children, in order to challenge their creative imagination, a large number of elements would be required to build larger more complicated structures, e.g. windmills, and the cost of such a large number is quite expensive.
Another disadvantage is that when a relatively large number of elements of the toys is provided to children, the storage of the elements becomes burdensome, in view of the space required for that storage. Again, for example, a relatively large number of elements of TINKER TOYS for challenging the creative imagination of an older child will occupy considerable space.
A further disadvantage of conventional toys is that the small size of an individual element of toy is often such that it would be unsafe to allow unaccounted for elements to remain within the adventuresome reach of younger children, who could swallow those small elements. With the usual conventional toys, again for example TINKER TOYS, it is not possible to tell when all of the elements have been accounted for after play by a child, unless those elements are carefully inventoried and counted.
Some conventional toys obviate some of these disadvantages, while not obviating other of the disadvantages. For example, conventional toy blocks allow some degree of both design and construction, and can be stored in a container which will visually show if a block is missing. However, toys of this nature have very limited design and construction ability, and as a result thereof, such toys are acceptable for challenging the creative imagination of only young children.
In view thereof, the art has sought different geometric configurations of elements of such toys which will allow some connection of individual elements so that a reasonable degree of construction may be provided to the playing child, while at the same time providing some latitude for creative design. Interlocking blocks, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,268,391, have been proposed in the art both for wall coverings, tiling and toys, but such blocks do not obviate the disadvantages noted above. It is also known in the construction industry that various geometric shapes may be interlocked for construction purposes, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,654,059, is representative thereof. However, such geometric shapes, again, do not solve the disadvantages noted above.
Other attempts at providing geometric shapes for play by children involve geometric puzzles, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,097, but here again such puzzles composed of geometric shapes do not obviate the disadvantages noted above.
A step forward in the art in obviating these disadvantages is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,834,067, which discloses toy building blocks in a generally elongated V-shape with locking notches in lower side walls which will permit the V-shaped blocks to be stacked one on another. Also, by controlling the angle of these V-shaped blocks, the blocks can be nested, to an extent, to conserve storage space. While this approach in the art does obviate some of the disadvantages noted above, this approach is substantially only applicable to construction play and has very limited or no design utility for the playing child.
Accordingly, it would be of substantial advantage to the art to provide toys of the above-noted nature which have both construction and design capabilities for the playing child, are inexpensive to provide large numbers of elements for challenging a wide range of ages of children, occupy very little space in storage, and are easily visually accounted for when storing to ensure that no unaccounted for element might prove to be a safety hazard for younger children.